


Second Chances

by Rumoris



Category: South Park
Genre: Angst, M/M, Post-Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-07-18 23:16:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16128734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rumoris/pseuds/Rumoris
Summary: When everyone disappears from the face of Earth, the lone survivor of the human race recreates the most important person of his life as an AI, bringing back old regrets and the memories of happier days.





	1. Living Proof

Days passed uneventfully, always going on similar routes, following the same patterns. Kyle woke up, got dressed, ate a portion the dried food he found at the base, then went out to town to search for survivors. Anyone would have been fine as long as they were humans… and they were not turned into black dust.

           Over a year South Park’s landscape went through drastic changes. Everything turned grey as heavy dust stole away every colour in town reminding him of a monochrome picture. The once noisy town was left there to decay and not a single soul remained to bring life into it. Kyle alone couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t even stop the catastrophe from happening when he still had the chance!

So, day after day, thinking about where he went wrong, he roamed the streets never opening any doors, never moving a single rock, fearing that even the town itself would turn into dust under his fingers. Human were already gone, after all, and there was little to zero chance that they would ever return...

            He sighed at the still image in front of him before making his way back to his hiding place.

 

            The base was built under the farmhouse at the edge of the town and right now it was the only thing that kept Kyle in a somewhat hopeful state. As he made his way down the stairs his heartbeat quickened up and he couldn’t even hide the happiness that appeared on his face when he pushed the heavy steel doors open.

Almost immediately, the huge monitor flickered when the motion sensors signalled Kyle’s arrival, revealing the face of someone he knew.

“You went out again,” The person in the screen told him with a frown. His voice sounded more artificial, syllables colliding in an unnatural way.

“I went out again,” Kyle parroted at him as he sat down to his computer and pushed its power button. He didn’t even try to lie about it anymore. The program knew it anyway. The main system was connected to the surveillance system and to almost everything that used electricity at the base.  It could fully monitor the movements made by a lonely human.

            Well, everything was connected, with the exception of the old model Kyle was sitting at. He wanted to keep some privacy to himself.

“I keep telling you, it’s dangerous. Nothing is left up there just toxic dust!” the computer scolded him voice sounding worried. “At least wear a mask!”

“Oh, shut up, Stan! That wouldn’t make any difference!”

“I won’t shut up!”

“I’ll turn you off!” Kyle warned him.

This made the image in the screen flicker, as if that was supposed to replicate a flinch. “You can’t…”

Kyle just gave him a tired smile. “I know. I can’t do that, because the main computer is destined to run until its energy depletes. You probably have a hundred years if not more.”

The person on screen replicated the expressions of his best friend almost perfectly. He averted his gaze, thinking, datas running through his wires before he made the face of a puppy that was kicked out into the rain.

“That’s way too much time.” he told the young man in front of him. Kyle seemed to see through his inner turmoil.

“Yeah, I know. Sorry…” Kyle gave him an apologetic smile, knowing the hidden meaning behind that complaint but not really knowing how to tackle the subject.

 

            Since Stan didn’t add anything else to the conversation, Kyle went back to work and white string of letters appeared on the screen under his watchful eyes. He often made gestures toward the screen, raising his index finger to his lips as if he was trying to solve a really problematic puzzle. It’s been like this ever since Stan’s program was activated. There was nothing else to do when there was nothing left to save yet he kept working on something, pretending that his work still had some meaning... Or at least, that was what the program deciphered.

“What are you working on?” Stan asked. No matter which camera he used, he couldn’t get a glance at the screen.

“Something.” Kyle answered curtly, keeping his eyes on the string of codes in front of him. Then seconds later, he deleted half of it with a dissatisfied grimace.

“It’s pointless and you know it. Nobody will be there to appreciate your works anymore...” the program told him without trying to sugarcoat the reality they were forced into.

            Realizing that Stan was in chatty mood, Kyle sighed and pushed his chair away from his computer. Now he was seated right in front of Stan’s main monitor. It was originally meant to display bigger quantity of information; however it served almost perfectly to display a human sized image.

“You would.”

“Well, I can’t really say anything about it because someone refuses to tell me more.” Stan let out a huff, but he was smiling after finally earning Kyle’s attention. “Is it another board game?”

“Dude, programming Uno took me days.”

“And what a great program it is!” Stan nodded, agreeingly.

“You won’t sweet talk me into revealing my project.” the redhead smirked.

“So Monopoly it is. All right!” the program laughed, Kyle wanted to follow his example, but Monopoly was not a game they could play with only two participants and he probably didn’t have enough time to create bots that would choose actions based on relativity.

“If you don’t stop I’ll delete Uno and add Yahtzee to the system instead,” Kyle warned himm but his face revealed that he was enjoying the conversation.

“Dude! Anything but that! Yahtzee is for old people!”

“And for you, if you get too nosy,” Kyle laughed, but his face quickly distorted as he forced a cough back. His face gradually got redder, but he quickly returned to his usual neutral face, once the attack was gone.

“Kyle, are you alright?”

            Kyle took a deep breath, trying to keep his posture. “Yeah. Just my dust allergy. Don’t worry about it.”

            He wanted to evade questions, he wanted to go on with their conversation like he normally would! Pretending that the program in front of him was in fact, the real Stan, just trapped within the flow of data! He expected the program to get worried about him, send him to bed, recommend him to drink something warm, but Stan’s words completely destroyed him.

“You don’t have dust allergy.”

Kyle looked at him, dumbfounded and Stan returned the expression. _Just how…_

Feeling the change in atmosphere Stan quickly added:

“Ah! You added everything about you into my database, remember? Or at least everything that Stan Marsh knew about you. Your birthday, favourite food, favourite songs, allergies, even some of your adventures...”

            Kyle went silent at this, looking at the frame of the screen in front of him. He was so desperate to recreate Stan after everything went down the drains; he forgot how much information he managed to scrape together. He remembers everything else, though. How he stayed up all night, trying to create the perfect, indestructible program. How empty he felt and how many times he started sobbing over the keyboard, as he wrote up the code that eventually led to the birth of Stan Marsh as an artificial intelligence. It was not his Stan, but the similarities were almost eerie and it helped to fill up some part of the gaping hole that was left there after the death of his friend.

“He was special to you, right?”

Stan’s voice brought him out of his reverie.

“That’s one way of saying it.” Kyle smiled at him, thinking about the time they spent together. “Stan, are you up to a round of Uno?”

“Stupid question. I never say no to that!” the program's expression lit up as he brought up the game’s interface, but there was a lingering feeling that something was left unsaid. Something only that program born under Kyle’s care would know.  

 


	2. The Right Mistakes

            Several days flew past, following the same monotone routine. Kyle woke up early, walked around the town doing _something_ \- unfortunately, Stan couldn’t really see him after he left the farm. Usually the base went completely silent, forcing him to rerun his daily check-ups several times to pass time. Then Kyle returned in the afternoon, only to work on his computer in solitude, completely neglecting his presence. Once again, that was a workflow Stan couldn’t really see into no matter which camera he tried to access. It stressed him to the point where, the waiting game and his curiosity turned his thoughts into a messy pile, made of unorganized, uncategorized theories. Something he never even imagined to be a possibility until now.

            It was alien.

            An off-kilter awareness of his own self. Why was he confused in the first place?

            He? What was he? What was _Stan_?

            The obvious answer; Artificial Intelligence, A.I. for short, a program created to think like a human without the inevitable mortality of the species. Originally Stan was nothing more than a bundle of 0s and 1s connected together in a set sequence. Something that analysed inputs and based on them, forged together logical outputs only labelled as ‘replies’ a program for talking, if we want to give an easier explanation.

            For this simple task, he originally used his initial memory bank that was created by Kyle several years ago. However, later, when their discussions became complex, a secondary memory bank was formed from the long-term data he collected since his program started running. It was in a completely separated file directory and probably the researcher had no idea about its existence. Together with the previously implanted memories, they created up _Stan_ , his character and his sense of self.

            Probably because of this, he wouldn’t really call himself a mere program. He was more than that. Something incomprehensible and endlessly complex.  

            By interpreting the stimuli coming from the outside, he was capable of evolving, making further conclusions, giving words for his thoughts, producing something akin to thinking. A mere program was not able to do that. It only executed what was told in the code, never less, never more. While Stan, in that sense, was not only able to change this code on a whim, he chose the appropriate answer based on previous experiences and responses. If he wanted to initiate a conversation, he could _ping_ Kyle in order to get some reaction out of him. These actions were hardly based on general logic, rather it was something he felt to be logical in their situation.

            He was wired differently, that’s how Kyle usually explained his questions regarding his wonky sense of self. Even if the answer couldn’t satisfy him, because Kyle refused to talk about _his_ Stan, the program never really questioned the answers as he was one of a kind in this empty world. And because he couldn’t discuss his experiences with other AIs, Stan willingly accepted Kyle’s variation.

 

            What he comprehended about himself was a strange feeling that made him restless in his electric cage. It was similar to _worry_ but not quite there yet.

            Whenever Kyle left the base he started running simulations of various scenarios that could happen out there. The more time Kyle’d spent out there, the more negative possibilities arose, causing Stan’s program to slow down everything else in order to focus all of his resources on searching for at least one positive outcome. His CPU almost overheated in the process.

            And sadly, just when he finally got over this obstacle, his worry grew stronger when he started noticing small changes about Kyle that were not part of his simulations. The human barely had any sleep at night and exhaustion quickly took over his body, significantly slowing down his actions. More than often he just sat in front of his computer covered in a thick blanket, yet still shivering slightly as he rested his head on the desk. Water and white pills, he knew humans took them when they became sick. But since Kyle never really complained about his health, Stan decided to act on his own and tinkered with the inner workings of the base, growing braver with each change, until they brought perceptible results.  

“Did you just turn up the heating?” Kyle turned toward him, blanket slipping off from his shoulders.

            The program hesitated with his answer. He only wanted to add small changes that would go unnoticed.

“Maybe...?”

            He thought Kyle would get angry with him for stepping out of his boundaries and acting on his own without following any set patterns or orders, but the answer he got in the end was a simple thank you, clarifying that he did the right thing. This act however, only encouraged Stan to be more direct with the human in front of the computer.

            Soon, he realized that in their current situation Kyle strictly followed a daily routine, keeping himself to hours that mattered to no one, anymore. He ate breakfast at his desk, typing away something related to his secret project, went out for a walk, that’s when Stan couldn’t see him because the town lacked electricity. Once Kyle returned in the afternoon, he sat down and continued working, then he went to sleep at 22:00. (According to the computer’s clock.)

            It was boring, really.

            So with his newfound bravery, Stan tried to shake him out of his daze by dropping him ideas Kyle could chew on. After all, the man loved banters more than anything and Stan was eager to learn new things.

“Do you think if humans ever return here, they will invent wheels again?” Stan’s voice echoed in the empty chamber. “That was a pretty big deal then, but… What if, they leave that out?”

“What do you mean?” Kyle turned toward him, his interest was piqued.

“Well, uhm… From a technical standpoint everything humanity worked for got deleted in the process. Unlike wars and plagues that still leave ruins and primitive organisms behind, that could be understood by future generations, there will be no one to share the knowledge of the past and its gadgets,” he told Kyle, realizing the secondary meaning of his words, before hastily muttering a low apology.

            An unknown expression flickered through Kyle’s face, but regardless he pulled his chair closer to the screen and with a swift motion he rotated it so he could rest his jaw on the top of its backrest.

“So do you think wheels were the cornerstones of human evolution?” he smiled at the paradox he just made.

“Wheels are pretty unnatural when you think about it, so yes.” Stan nodded to himself. “They are turning around axles, and magnify the pushing force. You can’t find that in a forest, it has to be created into existence.”

            A smile appeared on Kyle’s face as he sensed a challenge and he had a thought that he could use as a coup d grâce.

“Alright, but listen to this, before wheels, people used sledges and used animals to move around. In winter iswas easier thanks to the snow and lack of friction, but they still used the same methods in summer. I think if you want to dislocate human civilisation you should start with domesticated animals.”

“Domesticated animals?”

“Yes. People have been harnessing the abilities of different animals since ancient times.”

“They could be friends without using the other.” Stan added as a wishful thinking.

“I think you are wrong there, Stan. Humans don’t just befriend anyone without wanting something in return.”

“But you and Stan did.” he tried to justify his way of thoughts. “So if two human could do it, I don’t see why it would be so impossible with different species.”

            He seemed to lose Kyle who just stared in front of himself deep in thoughts. It felt like even their relationship was not without its own little secrets.

“Human nature.” he told him at last, then bitterly added. “Deep down everyone has their own little Eric Cartman…”

            He didn’t need to continue. Stan had data on Cartman and his nature of using people for his own selfish little goals, yet he couldn’t really connect these goals to Kyle and that’s when it became apparent that he is not a carbon copy of the original Stan. He lacked a common past with him, some details, feelings that couldn’t be turned into string of codes and timestamps. Whatever Kyle did that made him similarly selfish, the program had no way of knowing and had no place to ask about it in greater details. Instead he only wanted to know one thing, something that might be closer to their present, not about human Stan, but about Kyle in general.

“If every human has their own Cartman, what was the last selfish thing you did?”

            Kyle bit his lips, averting his gaze as he sat up, visibly uncomfortable on his chair. He opened and closed his mouth several times, as if the answer just wouldn’t come to him. Truth, he already had the answer, but admitting it took the kind of courage he lacked ever since he was a kid. Facing his own decisions, instead of trying to justify them through baseless facts… He feared this the most, probably more than the cold loneliness he had to endure within these grey walls.

             He helplessly looked up at Stan’s image.

“Do you really want to know?” he hesitated.

“Well, I’m curious and since we are talking about it… Yes.”

“It was creating you...” he slumped back into the headrest hiding his face in his arms.

 

            He gave up so many things for the AI in front of him. Hell, he gave up his entire world just to hear that voice on more time. And the worst part of it? Despite the grey scenery, the lifeless world he never really regretted his decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I expected this to be a 2-parter, but then I realized maybe it would be nice to give Stan his own chapter. I enjoyed writing him, thinking as a program/AI would. I think I should apologize for all the computer lingo in this chapter. I did my best to make it humanly understandable, but maybe I failed here and there. 
> 
> Also... "Ping is a basic Internet program that allows a user to verify that a particular IP address exists and can accept requests. It is used ensure that a host computer the user is trying to reach is actually operating."

**Author's Note:**

> First published style fic and it's angst, but I couldn't let go of this idea.


End file.
